Tag: Honduras

The second of our matches sees the 2014 World Cup arrive in Porto Alegre for the match between Frances and Honduras in Group E. This evening’s match is being played at the Estadio Beira-Rio, the home of SC Internacional, with their city’s rivals also recently revamped Arena do Grêmio having been overlooked for this tournament. For France, this tournament is an opportunity to get their World Cup finals record back on track after the abysmal failure of four years ago when, in one of the big surprises of an underwhelming group stage across the entire competition, they were eliminated...

The majority of eyes will be on the other match this evening between Spain and Chile, but this evening’s match between Switzerland and Honduras is, in its own way just as important. Chile and Switzerland could quite easily edge the pre-tournament favourites out before the knock-out stages of the competition even start, and no-one seems to care. There are swathes of empty seats at the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontain this evening. The vuvuselas, are out in force. It seems as if, obviously if you think about it, they are easier to play in some sort of formation if there are fewer being blown at the same time. When there is a massive crowd, they merge together into one, long, monotonous drone. There are fewer here this evening, though, and a couple of minutes into the game there is a brief, “parp, parp, parp parp parrrrrp”. It almost sounds like a football chant, and it might even be intentional. This final group, by the way, is one of those in which there are as many permutations for who could qualify as there are combinations of results that could occur between the two teams. Switzerland need to play for the win, but a draw could be enough if Spain were to lose to Chile in the other match. Even Honduras, were they to suddenly transmogrify into a world beating team, could...

The part-timers from Honduras took on the mighty European champions Spain with it all at stake: a loss for the Spanish side would see the tournament favourites eliminated at the first hurdle. What could possibly happen? Well, naturally enough, Spain won at a canter. However comfortable the performance, though, the margin of victory could yet cause some furrowed brows and frenzied abacus work come this Friday evening’s Group H deciders.

ITV 1 gives twenty minutes introduction time to this 12.30 kick-off. But its 12.26 before the actual game it self is addressed, the rest being about England, who aren’t playing for another 55 hours. Honduran kids, we are told, have to learn all seven verses of their national anthem. If that was the case in Britain we’d all know the bit about “rebellious Scots to crush” – which would double the Scottish National Party’s vote in one single history lesson. Jon Champion promises that we’ll get an abridged version. But the Chilean anthem appears to be cut off halfway through a verse, as the crowd and players sing on regardless for about three lines after the music stops. If they really have had to cut it short for an ad break, I might give up on ITV altogether – bar Adrian Chiles who has lived up to and surpassed all the hype. Remember Steve Rider? Exactly. Chile have predicted that they can make the semi-finals, at which Champion expresses incredulity. But, as he informs us, they finished second in the South American qualifying group and were top scorers. So why not? The game itself backs up Chile’s case rather than Champion’s. It’s a relief and a delight in equal measure that we have two teams whose first instinct is to attack. It’s just a pity that only Chile are...

The 19th World Cup Finals kick-off in just seven days, and the impending five week surge of ill-informed tabloid jingoism is tantalisingly within reach. Trying hard to not get carried away, but gnawing at the rope which tethers him to his kennel with excitement nevertheless is Dotmund, who today completes his in-depth look at the runners and riders for South Africa 2010. Today, a sneaky peak at the reigning European champions, a second-time Central American qualifier, a team from a country with a lot of cheese in and a team from a country which is quite long and thin.